Obama Bounces Back in Swing State Virginia

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(HAMDEN, Conn.) -- President Obama’s standing with voters in Virginia has bounced back in the past month and a half, with a new poll putting him ahead of all potential GOP rivals for the first time in this election cycle.

The findings mark the first time in Virginia that Obama has moved ahead of Romney, who edged the president 44-42 in a December Quinnipiac poll. They also offer an encouraging sign for Obama’s re-election campaign.

Obama carried Virginia with 52.6 percent of the vote in 2008, turning the state blue for the first time since 1964, but enthusiasm for the president has significantly eroded. His job approval in the latest poll remains underwater at 46 percent.

Republicans have also been on the rise in Virginia, taking control of both chambers of the state legislature earlier this year and picking up U.S. House seats in the 2010 midterms.

As recently as November, an Obama campaign official declared Virginia “an absolute toss-up.”

Obama holds a 4-point edge over Romney among independents and an 18-point lead among women, according to Quinnipiac.

The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Fifty percent of Americans polled in the latest national ABC News-Washington Post survey approve of Obama’s job performance, the most since spring.

Obama now leads Romney among registered voters who were polled by a slight 51-45 percent, in the ABC-Post survey, the first time either has cracked 50 percent in a series of match-ups since spring.